A group of Republicans have said they will not vote to stop a government shutdown if Obamacare is not defunded.
In a letter to Senator Harry Reid (D-NV), the Republican Senators have said they “will not support any continuing resolution or appropriations legislation that funds further implementation or enforcement of Obamacare.”
The charge is being led by Senator Mike Lee (R-UT) who wrote the letter. Senators Marco Rubio (R-FL), Ted Cruz (R-TX) and Rand Paul (R-KY) have also signed the letter.
Republicans in the House are putting together a similar strategy with Rep. Mark Meadows (R-NC) leading the effort.
The federal government is funded through September 30. A continuing resolution will have to be passed to prevent a government shutdown after that time. Since a continuing resolution would likely contain funding for Obamacare, the Republicans are saying they would simply not support such a resolution, thus triggering a government shutdown.
As Sentator Lee put it, “If Republicans in both houses simply refuse to vote for any continuing resolution that contains further funding for further enforcement of ObamaCare, we can stop it. We can stop the individual mandate from going into effect.”
The letter said that the recent delay of the employer mandate and eligibility verification for individual exchanges is evidence that the healthcare law is a failure. The letter goes on to say that repealing Obamacare is the best course of action, but at the very least it cannot be enforced as written.
A copy of the letter is included below.
Senator Lee’s Letter to Eliminate ObamaCare Funding
